Filming horror in Cuba is forbidden. The government believes that what matters is not what happens or what people endure to survive, but whether that others find out about it, whether it’s shared in an Instagram story or published on Facebook.

For that reason, the Prosecutor’s Office is requesting over five years in prison for Julio Cesar Duque de Estrada Ferrer, for a chain of events that began when he was filming a “crowd” at a cooking gas distribution point.

The gas crisis in Cuba is deep and cyclical. “Low availability” and ships that don’t unload due to nonpayment are the norm. With no electricity and no gas, people are on the brink of madness, trying to figure out how to cook, how to feed themselves and their families. When gas arrives, it’s only logical that everyone wants to buy. That’s what happened on September 5, 2024, at a sales point located on Carlos Dubois Street in Santiago de Cuba, around noon.

Julio Cesar was detained that afternoon. Four days later, a provisional detention order was imposed on him; a week and a half later (on September 21), he was transferred to the Aguadores Penitentiary Facility, where he has been held ever since.

After eight months in detention without a trial, in May 2025, prosecutor Lena Sardina Santana signed the Provisional Conclusions of his case. The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) published a copy of the document.

Duque is being charged with three offenses: disobedience, assault, and resistance, for which the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a combined sentence of five years and six months in prison.

What Did Julio Cesar Duque de Estrada Do?

According to the Provisional Conclusions:

Duque de Estrada was at a liquefied gas sales point on September 5, 2024. A crowd had gathered, and Julio Cesar began filming what was happening with his cellphone.

According to the document, counterintelligence officer Mario Raciel Soulary Garces—who was patrolling the area—“arrived” at the scene. He “ordered” Julio Cesar to stop filming and put away his phone. Julio didn’t put away the phone but did lower it. The officer demanded his ID card, but “the accused refused and became aggressive.” Soulary then “ordered him to accompany him to the industrial market in that same area.” And so they went.

Inside the market, the officer again demanded identification, and Julio Cesar attempted to resume filming, but Soulary “demanded” he put the phone away. While the officer was checking the ID, according to the prosecutor’s account, Julio “took advantage (…) and with one of his hands delivered a strong slap [to the officer] on the left side of his face, with no further consequences.”

From that point, a struggle broke out between the two until Soulary subdued Julio Céear “and restrained him with a wire found at the scene (…) until the police patrols arrived.” He was then taken to a station and formally accused.

However, the OCDH claims that the official report omits important information. According to the Observatory: “what actually happened was that the officer violently snatched the phone from Duque de Estrada.” El Toque was unable to corroborate the actual events with direct sources, but it is not the first time that police forces have assaulted ordinary citizens who end up being the ones charged.

Near the end of the first page of the Provisional Conclusions, there’s a description of who Julio Cesar is. But the profile doesn’t just mention his date or place of birth or where he lives, it includes other elements that are irrelevant to the events. It reads: “prior to the incident, he was not involved in political or mass organizations, did not participate in activities promoted by these organizations, and expressed opposition to the revolutionary process and its leaders.”

Prosecutor Lena explicitly puts in writing what has long been an open secret in Cuba: not being “integrated” into the Revolution, not obeying it, not loving it, and publicly expressing disagreement automatically makes you an “enemy,” a “threat,” a person to be eliminated at any cost.

Repression for Telling the Truth

The prosecution’s sentence request for Julio Cesar Duque de Estrada adds to recent cases of Cubans being punished for posting on social media, charges disguised as other crimes but in reality amounting to censorship and punishment by the Havana regime for those who violate its coercive norms.

In mid-June 2025, the Prosecutor’s Office requested a ten-year prison sentence for activist Alexander Verdecia Rodríguez, the coordinator in Granma for the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), for expressing critical opinions about the government on his personal Facebook account.

In April 2024, a court sentenced Mayelín Rodríguez Prado—then 22 years old and mother of a 3-year-old—to 15 years in prison for filming and livestreaming part of the protests that took place in Nuevitas, Camagüey, in August 2022. It was the longest sentence among the 14 residents tried for participating in the demonstrations.

Another well-known case is that of Sulmira Martínez. The young woman has been imprisoned for more than two years without trial. She is charged with enemy propaganda for running a critical Facebook page and posting messages “contrary to revolutionary ideology”.

There is no explicit provision in Cuban law prohibiting individuals from filming public officials (including police officers) while they are performing their duties. Images taken in public spaces are not protected by privacy laws. Officer Soulary had no real grounds to order Julio Cesar to stop filming what was happening in Santiago de Cuba.

But none of that matters in Cuba. Judicial criminalization is always on the table as a tool to protect the government’s absolute power. It’s not a new strategy. What’s new is that now we can read it in black and white, and document the legal charades and tricks used to justify, in this case, repression for simply telling or showing the truth.

This article was translated into English from the original in Spanish.